


Here to Stay

by Mindswander



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, Thor - All Media Types
Genre: Future Fic, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-24
Updated: 2013-12-24
Packaged: 2018-01-05 23:57:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,436
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1100061
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mindswander/pseuds/Mindswander
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After all this time Steve finally makes his choice.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Here to Stay

**Author's Note:**

> This is a companion fic to the Christmas present given to me (well Steve) by asgardianhammer on my rp blog.
> 
> Enjoy!
> 
> (As always I don't have a beta.)

“You called him Thor again, you know that?”

“Hmm?” He looked up from his paperwork to find Phil smirking at him in his quintessential way and chuckled. “I told you I was getting old even if I don’t look it,” he said and bit the end of his pen cap to stifle a smile.

Phil just shook his head with fond annoyance and pushed his chair back from the desk. “Sure. Whatever you say.”

To Steve’s own eyes he appeared older, hardly older really, but different enough that he was thinking maybe he was aging a bit. Perhaps it was only the clothes he thought with a wry twist of the mouth, or maybe it was the weight on his shoulders. He didn’t get to consider that further as Phil nudged him, Steve following the hand until he was standing and looking down at his friend.

“You have to go,” Phil insisted and there was pressure on his back moving him toward the door.

“But I haven’t finished the—“

The agent brushed aside his comment with a flip of his hand. “You have places to be,” and the corners of his eyes crinkled as a small smile appeared on his face, lips pursed as if he knew a secret.

Steve, a little bewildered, furrowed his brow. “What?”

“Nothing. Take care of yourself, alright?” He said with a roll of his eyes and bumped his shoulder against Steve’s bicep.

“You too,” he answered faintly and let himself be ushered to the door. “I’ll see you soon.”

                                         

* * *

 

With an exaggerated grunt he swung the boy onto his shoulders to a peal of delighted laughter. “You’re becoming awfully big now,” he laughed and the boy wrapped his arms around Steve’s neck to rest his chin on his head.

“You’ll never not be strong enough to lift me, Uncle Steve,” he giggled and rubbed his hand into his hair making it stand up in strange directions though Steve didn’t mind.

“Come on T’Chaka, you are holding him up I suspect,” T’Challa rumbled and Steve met his friends eyes with a smile. The man had aged radically since he had first met him, but gracefully. His stark white hair stood out from his wrinkled skin though his strong posture had never changed, like his eyes which were filled with…that look again, the one he had seen on Coulson.

“It’s not a problem. Really,” Steve said as T’Challa reached up and Steve bowed his head so the boy could be lifted from his shoulders. “But can you tell me why everyone keeps looking at me like that?”

“Like what?” Azari questioned as he stepped onto the roof. It was still strange for Steve to see him grown as he was, with his own child now. He had met the boy not even a day after he had been born all those years ago.

Shaking himself he pointed at the man’s father. “Do you see that?”

“I think you’re imagining things, getting a little senile,” Azari quipped with an amused shrug as he swept his gaze to the side, but Steve couldn’t say the man was as clueless as he pretended. He never was a good liar even as a boy.

“Keep your secrets then,” he said with a laugh and backed away from them, three generations of wonderful people he had come to know and hold as close as family.

Giving them a nod, he looked up. “I’m ready Heimdall,” he called and had just enough time to see his friends’ wave before he disappeared in the shine of a rainbow.

                                         

* * *

 

Thor was with his advisors when he found him. It still made him moderately uncomfortable that he had free reign on Asgard but today he was grateful for it. Upon seeing him the Aesir said a few more words before they were dismissed and he was in Steve’s arms in a flash, kissing him all over; his lips, his nose, his eyes. His own heartbeat picked up, fit to burst as he kissed him back just as fiercely hands running over everything he could reach, to remind him that he was here, he was real.

When they paused for a moment with the mood less hectic between them, Steve had his arms wrapped around Thor’s torso, holding on tightly though it hurt slightly from the armor on his body.

“You must not be away so long next time,” Thor murmured into his hair.

Steve nodded against his shoulder in agreement. Two months. Two months of having not seen him even once but that was the price they had to pay with Thor living on Asgard full time now that he was king.  Under his chin Steve felt him reaching back to unfold his arms from around him to hold a hand between them as he looked into Steve’s eyes, his own shining with love and adoration.

“Let us retire. The hour is late,” he said, pulling on his hand to make him move toward their chambers. In truth it was hardly late at all, but Thor allowed them these moments on Steve’s return, knowing he could never stay long. There was never a wasted moment between them on these occasions.

As soon as the door shut, closing out the world behind them, Thor’s hands were on him again reverently. He worked Steve out of his clothes, mapping each patch of skin he came in contact with as if he had never done so before. Steve returned the favor as he removed each piece of armor by hand, though Thor could do it another way, wanting to feel the decreasing distance between them until they were skin to skin on the bed.

He and Thor took turns kissing, biting and tracing their fingers down each other’s bodies, moaning all the while. It was all unhurried, whispers of time spent alone breathed into each other’s skin making up for lost time.

Later when Thor slid into him Steve cried out, not because of pain but from it being too much. Thor was touching him, marking him like he was already gone again. His hands, his kiss, everything had an air of melancholy that overwhelmed him.  Quickly lost in the passion between them he came a short time later with Thor breathing against his lips, nails digging into his arms and the whine of his pleasure sounding too much like a sob to his own ears.

Laying side by side afterwards with their legs intertwined, skin cooling, and drawing mindless patterns into each other’s skin it hit him; the looks, the weight on his shoulders when he didn’t see his partner for months at a time.

“I want to stay,” he whispered and looked up from where he was laying into Thor’s astonishingly vulnerable expression that made Steve’s heart twist. “I want to stay,” he said more firmly.

Thor ran his fingers down the side of his face and Steve closed his eyes for a moment. “You realize the gravity of what you are saying,” he said with a quaver in his voice but it was more question than anything despite the hope he could hear there.

“Yes, I do. I couldn’t do it before, but that doesn’t matter anymore.” He hadn’t been able to say it, to make that leap though he refused to let Thor go even when he was given the option to do so. The Earth needed him then, but it didn’t now. There was a new wave of heroes, a whole bunch of them. Strong, honorable courageous people that took up the mantle his fallen friends could no longer hold.

 Rolling onto his stomach he looked Thor in the eyes. “I can’t do this anymore. I need to be here with you. I’ll always go back if they need me, like you do when you must, but my place is here with you.” He kissed him lightly on the lips and mumbled, “I want to stay.”

Thor cupped the back of his head and kissed him more firmly before pulling away. “So you shall. I had always hoped this day would come.”

                                 

* * *

 

Thor was watching him closely, the breeze ruffling the god’s hair as he gave him one last out. “I cannot undo this choice once you make it, love,” he offered and though his voice carried no real weight, it was so like him to try to give Steve a way out even if he didn’t desire it.

“I wouldn’t want you to,” he said and laced their fingers together.

Giving the shining gold apple one last look, he met Thor’s eyes as he took a bite.


End file.
